How long is Starfield? Bethesda says 30 - 40 hours for the main quest, that's bigger than Skyrim and Fallout 4's

Starfield’s main quest will be around 30 - 40 hours long, which is 20% bigger than Bethesda’s previous titles.

In an interview with IGN, Bethesda boss and Starfield director Todd Howard revealed that the upcoming space RPG’s main quest is bigger than some of the company’s previous games such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim. "This one’s ending up a little bit longer [than our previous games] and we may tune that some still," Howard said. "It’s more quests, so it might be 20% more than our previous ones."

To put that into perspective, it takes 25.5 hours to complete the Skyrim Special Edition main quest, while Fallout 4 takes just a little longer at around 27 hours. Starfield "might be in the 30s, maybe 40", Howard told IGN, but of course "player’s mileage" will cause this time to vary, he adds. 

As all Bethesda players will know though, 30 to 40 hours on the main quest is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of total playtime due to the numerous side quests and other optional extras that will also keep players coming back. In fact, as revealed during the recent Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Starfield will have more than 100 systems and "over 1,000" planets to explore. Although, fans are divided on whether this is a good thing or not. 

Another thing that will give Starfield some longevity is the modding scene, which is all too familiar to Bethesda fans and even Todd Howard. "We've learned that people do play our games for a really, really long time," Howard said in the same interview. "Certainly, we're going to be doing extra content for this game, and we love our modding community. We actually think this game, for our modding community, is going to be a dream as there’s so much they could do."

Can’t get enough of this upcoming Bethesda game? Find out why just because Starfield has 1,000 planets doesn’t mean it’ll have 1,000 planets worth of content.